Concords Next Freegunner Has a Gap to Fill in the Hero Shooter

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Concords Next Freegunner Has a Gap to Fill in the Hero Shooter

As a seasoned gamer with over two decades of gaming under my belt, I can’t help but feel a twinge of sympathy for Concord, the new kid on the block. With its disappointing player count and seeming exodus of players, it’s clear that Firewalk has their work cut out for them. However, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from my years spent in the gaming trenches, it’s that developers never shy away from a good comeback story.

At the moment, Concord is facing some tough challenges. Launched only a week back, it’s experiencing an unusually low peak player count on Steam and seems to be losing players rapidly. Yet, despite these setbacks, the developer Firewalk has already announced its intentions for two post-launch seasons.

In October 2024 and January 2025, Concord is scheduled to release Seasons 1 and 2, each introducing a new playable character known as a Freegunner. With a vast Sci-Fi background, the possibilities for these new characters’ abilities and appearances are endless. However, it’s crucial that the upcoming Freegunners address certain gameplay gaps within Concord’s roster.

What Concord’s Next Freegunner Should Prioritize

Concord Needs More Healers

In the present situation, PlayStation’s latest hero shooter, Concord, is lacking in healers. At this point, only two Freegunners – Jabali and Daw – can be classified as healers. However, due to the quick-tempo gameplay typical of many Concord game modes, the healing capabilities of Jabali and Daw aren’t usually very efficient.

In addition to a protective dome, Daw is furnished with regenerative pads. These pads operate much like Soldier 76’s Biotic Field in Overwatch, where team members need to stand within the pad’s circular range to gradually recover health over time. However, one major drawback of Daw’s healing pad is that it doesn’t align well with Concord’s gameplay dynamics. In most Concord matches, particularly those in the Brawl and Rivalry playlists, teams are generally advised to separate at the match’s start and pursue enemies in smaller groups of two or three. Daw’s healing pad goes against this strategy, as it necessitates players to stay put while they recuperate health away from the action.

When it comes to Jabali’s orbs, they offer a slight edge – they adhere to an ally temporarily and provide healing to those in the vicinity, but their area of effect demands that the team stays relatively close together to reap the benefits. A drawback shared by both Jabali and Daw’s healing mechanisms is that they don’t heal teammates quickly enough, further discouraging players from lingering behind to utilize Daw’s static pads or await Jabali to hurl his orb.

Concord ought to prioritize that the upcoming Freegunner character excels in healing capabilities above all else. The skills this character wields should be primarily supportive, offering a more streamlined approach to healing compared to Daw’s pads and Jabali’s orbs.

Concord Could Use a More Mobile Tank

For its second post-launch Freegunner, Concord could use a more mobile tank hero. While 1-OFF, Star Child, and Emari are all solid Freegunners, they all share an incredibly slow movement speed. Granted, tanks in hero shooters should always move slower than the rest of the roster, but these Freegunners take that tradition a step too far. It also doesn’t help that these tanks’ health pools aren’t large enough to offset their drastically lower movement speed.

Instead of merely enhancing the speed of these Freegunners, it would be intriguing to introduce a future tank hero to Concord with some agility. This updated Freegunner could possess a unique ability that propels them forward for a short time, similar to Reinhardt’s Charge in Overwatch, enabling them to engage quicker in the action.

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2024-08-29 19:23